1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for providing handover information within a femtocell network and a terminal using the same and, more particularly, to technology that is capable of providing handover information based on the time for which a terminal will stay within the coverage range of each of a plurality of femtocell base stations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the use of femtocell base stations has increased in wireless communication for terminals. A femtocell base station has a short coverage range, but is advantageous in that it can be installed close to a terminal and it offers a quality of service higher than that of a macro cell base station because it is installed close to the terminal.
In general, a femtocell base station has a short coverage range that is between 10 and 30 m. If a user moves while using his or her terminal, the user may move outside the coverage range due to moving around, resulting in the problem in which the terminal should perform frequent handover. In particular, if a user moves at high speed while using a terminal, frequent handover occurs as described above, with the result that the quality of service is deteriorated.
Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2009-0112337 relates to a method for handover to a plurality of femtocells, and discloses technology that enables a plurality of femtocells to share limited radio resources, thereby reducing the number of handover targets.
Furthermore, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2010-0002044 relates to a femtocell search method for handover from a macro cell to a femtocell, and discloses technology in which a terminal connected to a macro cell can directly search for a femtocell, thereby minimizing the number of handover targets.
The conventional technologies for reducing the number of handover targets disclose only the technology for limiting radio resources or the technology based on the direct searching of a terminal, but do not disclose technology that selects a handover target based on the time for which a terminal will stay within the coverage range of each of a plurality of femto cell base stations, thereby overcoming the deterioration of the quality of service attributable to frequent handover.
Accordingly, in order to overcome the deterioration of the quality of service attributable to frequent handover, there is an urgent need for novel handover information provision technology that selects handover targets in descending order of the time for which a terminal will stay within the coverage range of each of a plurality of femtocell base stations or that excludes a femtocell base station from a handover target if a terminal moves at a speed equal to or higher than a predetermined reference speed within the coverage range of the femtocell base station.